nextcloud / nextcloud/richdocuments
Searching is disabled for read-only files with OCR based PDF files
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- JavaScript
- Stars
- 453
- Forks
- 147
- Avg merge
- 14h 54m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 83
Description
Describe the bug
I have disabled PDF_Viewer on Nextcloud to use Nextcloud Office as the default for PDF. But, I noticed something, I can't search for some words on a searchable PDF file.
To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
- Share some searchable PDF files with read-only privilege
- Open that file with Nextcloud Office
- Search for something
- You won't get any result
Expected behavior
Since the file is a searchable PDF file you should get a result.
Screenshots
I tried with native browser search functionality not the default Nextcloud Office status bar search field
THIS IS FROM A PERSON WHO SHARES THE FILE

AND THIS IS FROM A USER WITH WHO THE FILE SHARED

Client details:
- OS: [e.g. iOS] Fedora 37
- Browser [e.g. chrome, safari]: Firefox
- Version [e.g. 22]: 106.0.4
- Device: [e.g. iPhone6, desktop]: Laptop
Server details
Operating system: Fedora Server
Web server: Apache
Database: PostgreSQL
PHP version: 8.0.25
Nextcloud version: 25.0.1
Version of the richdocuments app: 7.0.1
Version of Collabora Online 22.5.802
Logs
Nextcloud log (data/nextcloud.log)
Nothing related to this issue
Browser log
Insert your browser log here, this could for example include:
Nothing related
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Reproduce with a searchable OCR-based PDF shared as read-only, using Nextcloud Office rather than PDF_Viewer, and compare the sharer’s and recipient’s behavior. Trace the read-only sharing path and the browser’s native search entry point; done means recipients can search the PDF text without edit privileges.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- javascript
- Domain
- frontend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 30/100